INSTALLING NETBSD

USING A WIN 95 MACHINE AS BOOTP/TFTP SERVER

By: Mauricio Tavares
First version: 09AUG1999
Last Modified: 07SEP1999 -- Converted to html
The objective of this little document is to put down the steps I did to
install netbsd in my little DECstation 5000/200. From what I found out,
when they are installing netbsd in a new machine, many people have another
unix box to boot and install from. Well, I did not have that luxury. You
see, I do have a Sparc 1+ at home, but I have only recently installed its
operating system (Solaris 2.6 in that case), so it would be pretty far in
the future until I considered that machine ready to help me with my DEC.

LIST OF REQUIRED STUFF

A PC running Windows 95 or later

The computer where netbsd is to be installed on.
In my case, that is a DEC 5000/200 workstation. From now on, I will
refer to this machine as workstation so to distinguish it from the
PC I previously mentioned.

Some way to connect the PC and the workstation through the net.
In my case, the PC had a 100Base-TX card and the DEC has its built-in
10Base-2 (BNC) connector. But, I did happen to have a HUB with 8
100Base-TX ports on the back and one BNC connector on the front. So,
with a bit of cable and terminators (the latter for the 10Base-2 part),
I was in business.

BOOTP and TFTP server for the PC
I used Weird Solutions BOOTP Server 95 V1.1, found in their website,
www.weirdsolutions.com

For the tftp server, I used Walusoft's TFTPServer32Pro v3.4, found
in their site www.walusoft.co.uk

The install kernel

FTP or NFS server for the PC
This part is optional. Since I used the PC for the bootp/tftp server
part, I decided also to use it to provide the distribution set. Main
reason for that is speed.

CONVENTION

When I write Foo->bar->Moose, I mean "go to the Foo menu then select the
topic bar inside that and then select Moose"

SETUP

After you install all the programs in the PC, start the bootp server, then
go to Service->Properties->Clients. Enter the hardware address of the
workstation. To get it, I asked the machine:

As it can be seen, the hardware address is 08-00-2b-17-91-25. Then,
double-click on Boot file, Extensions Path, and IP address under
Available Options, which makes them be added to Configured options. You should end
up with something like what is shown below:

Going to the Configured options list, select IP address and then
enter on the bottom (in the rectangle under "Value:") the IP address for
the machine. Then, do the same for Extensions Path, entering now the path
to the install kernel file. Finally, under Boot file, enter the name
of the kernel boot file. Close the dialog box, check that the bootp is up
(under Service) and then go to TFTP server.

In TFTPserver, Select System->Setup->Outbound file.
There enter again the path
to the install kernel file as the Outbound file path. I have "Enable Paths"
checked on. I also have "Only Send This FIle" enabled and entered the
name of the kernel file. Check to see that it is serving (under File).

That is pretty much it.

Now, go to the workstation and tell it to do a netboot. In my DEC, the
command is

>>boot 6/tftp

But, I do not have the foggiest idea about your setup. My experience is
that this takes quite some time to work. In my setup, tftp server had
3 timeouts before finally working. So, do take your time. However, it
has always worked with me when I used these two programs.

Once the miniboot starts, it will take you to the installation process.
For reference, here is what it looks like in mine. In this example, I
am using a little 100MB SCSI drive